Flight Manners or Why Upgrading Your Flight Ticket is Worth Every Penny!

The oldest daughter and I went on a little trip last week to look at a school she was interested in attending. She has been working for several months now and offered to take me along as a chaperone, free of charge. (Did someone say "Free trip to England??") She bought the plane tickets and I footed the bill on everything else. Some lovely English friends from our old church offered us their home as our base camp and another friend from South Africa literally handed me the keys to her car so we were all set to go!
Fast forward to the actual day of  departure and we are at the airport...............

Now, finally, we had boarded and were waiting for the moment that we roll onto the runway and take off.

Before we even get started, the seat in front of me leans back to hover across my lap. Why did they do that? Didn't they hear the announcement about keeping their seats and tables in an upright and locked position? Oh, yes they did! They have proven that they aren't deaf since they are chatting away and answering each other in a Dutch accent.
This type of behavior is what I have labeled, "Selfish Public Obnoxiousity" or "SPO". These types of people believe that it is their right to have it their way, no matter if it is rude to others or not. There is a whole generation of them coming up. Parents, identify and fix this problem with your children so they don't become one of those rude people.
We all know people like that. They make you lose your temper and the ability to reason in the English language. I need space and this calls for me to upgrade my tickets for the next flight, at any cost. Yuck! End of subject.

Back to the trip...
Next, takeoff. It wasn't a bad takeoff at all. We came up to speed and began to admire the impressive view of the cityscape below our large flying machine. Bump. Bump, sssshake, jiggle. Calm and peace for a moment. Again, bump, bump, shake, jiggle, jiggle.Thereafter begins some vibrating and shaking of the whole plane. I began to think that the clouds, wind and sky were playing  a slow motion ping pong game with us. This continued on for a good while.
Let me give you a quote that may put into perspective how much movement we had going on. "If I knew that my boobs were going to be dancing so much, I would have worn a sports bra to this party!"
I tell my uncomfortable motion sickly partner that the shakies will calm down at 10,000 feet. We continue to ride like the cavalry at war for another 10 minutes then, "Ahaaaah", the ride suddenly becomes smooth moving skate on ice. Just like I said, 10,080 feet! (I hit the nail on the head there.)

Lots of flying hours and flight experience make me an old pro at this game.
First pass by the flight attendants netted me a ginger ale and some rice crackers .

A few hours pass while I watch a movie, Thor 2. If you don't know me well, then let me tell you that I adore Thor. He is the epitome of hunky handsomeness. He could stand around and sell moldy butter for all I care as long as I can look at him. That man is lovely! End of subject.

The next flight attendant interruption was ginger ale and a lovely pasta with veggies & chicken and a whole bunch of carbs.
Back to my captured audience movie watching. "Percy Jackson 2 and the something of something." It wasn't as bad as I though it would be. It kept me awake for a while........

An hour or two later, there are strange noises I hear coming from across the plane. The sound of an old car trying to be started, but it is choking up, is a way to describe it. Think about it for a second...There you go.
Now this strange noise continues off and on for a while and I am thinking that this person who is coughing needs medical attention. Then my mind wonders and I think," WHAT? That person is sharing that nasty cough with us! Did they even get a Doctors approval to fly? What kind of nasty disease is that?" I quickly inhale some alcohol hand sanitizer to fend off the  thought of germiness and vow to find that diseased perpetrator and talk them to justice!

Round three by the flight attendants is nearly missed by me since the overwhelming feeling of comatosia is taking over my mind. Too much sitting does that to me. I decide to cruise the aisles in search of.... some excitement! But alas! None is to be found since most of the flight consists of sleepy bodies.. Boring!

The pilot flashes the light for "seat belts on" and the vibroshake plane begins again. I take my seat by climbing between the reclining seat in front and the lap of the nice lady from India at the end of our three seat aisle. After that Yogic icebreaker with our neighbor, we begin to chat about how long we had left on our flights. She was on the second leg of 30+ hour journey home We had the best of conversations about cultures, vegetarianism, and tag teaming our trips to the toilet so we didn't have to straddle each other. She was a darling and we were blessed to meet her.
 
Back to my captured audience seating and I decide to listen to some classical music next. A half hour later, the announcement to "Prepare for Landing", come in over the intercom. We start gathering our things for arrival.

 We are almost there! Yeah!
 

Five minutes before landing, the deep, gutteral sound of snoring pierces the air....

Welcome to Britain!

The Flu ain't got me (for long)! (But it did get the hubby!)

So, this season, has been full of cheer, cold weather and the usual things that are thrown at you during the winter. We had Thanksgiving at my house, A birthday party at my house and Christmas at my house too. Now from that, you can see that my house is a busy place sometimes. Thank God for my cousin and his lovely wife, who hosted the New Year's dinner at his house.
So what does all of this have to do with the flu? Well, it all started when my oldest decided to get a family gift of a trampoline. Can you see where I am going with this? (Ha! NO, unless you keep up with me on Facebook!)
This now famous trampoline was delivered after Christmas and since the children didn't know that it was coming, there was a beehive of excitement when the UPS truck pulled up and it took BOTH men to wrestle the box out. Everyone rushed out to see what it was and they jumped up and down when they figured out what it was. My hubby and son put it together that evening and needed to do a little more when the sun came up to make it safe.
Next morning, my hubby goes out to put the finishing touches on the trampoline and the children begin the hourly barrage of jumping on it. Unfortunately, without planning ahead, there wasn't a step up or down to shorten the height of getting into and out of the safety net. The children came and went without a hitch until the oversized son of mine climbed in and the extremely undersized 6 yr old hurried to get out. She decided to speed up the process by jumping(committing jumpicide), off the side of the rails , but instead of landing on her feet, she landed on her side with her arm pinned behind her back!  I was in the house and as soon as I heard the "cry of pain", I was at the window viewing what was transpiring. The teenage son was gently carrying his wounded sister in the house for an assessment by Dr. Mom. Dad was busy concentrating on something else so he ignored the cries of pain! (I don't know HOW he does it!)
The son was laughing, but the 6 yr old was bawling about her arm hurting. We iced that tiny arm down in all of the place she said that hurt and she lay on the couch with a drink watching, "Night at the Museum" within 15 minutes. Hmmm, 4 hours later, she was still lying on the couch and could pinpoint the exact place of intense pain. Great! But maybe not so great. This is the child who bounces back from everything. She is what we have nicknamed, "The Chihuahua." Perky, spunky, vocal and 
noisy, this child doesn't sit still. But this time, she did. And I figured that we would have to hit up the local emergency room before the night was over.
We went and there was a crowd. A real crowd full of sick people. Oh, it was a miserable place except for the few smiles from here and there- people who had come along with the sick people to get them well before they contaminated the rest of us non-sick people! One man stood out in the crowd. He looked as if too many doughnuts had passed from his hands to his stomach and then he rinsed those down with too many french fries. He was near balding, but I wouldn't have looked twice at him except that he was coughing. He was sloppily coughing all over his hands, arms, seat and the air surrounding him. He barraged the room with his NASTYNESS. I wondered how did he get this far without a mask and went to ask the nurse. She gave me and my daughter a mask and said, "You might have come in with something, but we don't want you to leave here with the flu." (Insert silly, crooked smile here.)  I asked, "What about HIM? Isn't he is a cesspool of disease? Shouldn't HE be wearing one too??" She said that he was given one!  Okay! (Insert stoopid gene here.) This guy who had the power to not infect people was too I-don't-know-what to wear the mask! This is crazy!
 Now by the grace of God, my phone rang and y daughter and I left the room to go to another area and talk for 45 minutes. When we came back, the cesspool of disease was gone and so were half of the patients. Peacefulness was restored! Cleanliness was not.
Twenty four hours later, I was hit like a train wreck with the headache, fever and the wrost bodyaching pain of a lifetime.
I went from normal to delirium (at least that's what the family said!). But all I knew in my sane mind was that I wasn't going to stay down! I can't be out of commission for more than a day or two. No mommy wants to be fired. That would be an insult to the institution of motherhood! I felt so bad that I considered going to the hospital for any drug that took the aches and headache away! I knew why people committed suicide! It was from the pain! I know why people have addictions to painkillers! It's the pain!
I began my regimen with Boiron's Oscillococinnum,  Vit-d, Vit-c, Oil of oregano, sambucus, lemon, honey and whiskey in hot water, chicken broth, ginger tea and water-lots of it.
-Boiron's Ocsillo is taken every 6 hours.
-The vit-D needed is 8,000 IU's daily. I split it up as 2 or 4 times daily.
-Vitamin-c chewables 500mg. I took one of these hourly if I was awake. I knew to cut back when I hit bowel tolerance (the near diarrhea point, sorry about the gross factor!) Then that meant every other hour I would take one.
-Oil of Oregano- I prefer "Physicians Formula Oregacillin", but since that is hard to find, I went with a good brand and took one hourly too.
-The Sambucus, I took 1 teaspoons 4 times daily.
-Two tablespoons each of honey, lemon, and whiskey. Put these in a teacup and add boiling water to make a throat, cough and nerve soothing cuppa!
-Chicken broth, for keeping hydrated and your daily dose of Jewish penicillin! I might have had 2-3 cups daily.
-Ginger tea, sliced, peeled ginger simmered in water, strained out and add a bit of honey for taste. let's face it, this stuff burns! But I think it was also killing germs and bacteria on it's way down!
-Water, as much as you can drink in between all of this other stuff.
-Don't have any sugar or carbs. These things feed the virus and you want it to leave you sooner than later! ( After 12 hours, I felt great. So great, that I ate a cookie and within 20 minutes, my symptoms came back! Bad idea!)
-You HAVE to keep hydrated! Your body has to work and it needs fuel to do that.
-Rest, lie around and doze all day. This is an inside job for your body to fight without you using up all of it's energy!

I gleaned a lot of ideas from years of use on my hubby. He has had a flu shot every year and every year, he becomes ill. He came through my sickroom declaring that he wasn't getting my "dreaded disease". Three days later, he was hit with the flu and has been sick ever since........
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Here is a great web post  about natural flu treatments which adds to the list that I am personally using.
 http://wellnessmama.com/207/24-hour-flu-treatment/

Thank you Wellness Mama!

What's going on??

As usual, life has taken me for a bit of a ride lately. Well, maybe not just a ride, but a bit of an adventure or maybe better said, a safari!
Since I last blogged over two months ago, we have moved out of our "short term" apartment, were homeless for two weeks, took a road trip to VA to visit the Inlaws that we love so dearly, moved into a house that well, seems to make me angry each week, my oldest got a job at one of the most expensive department stores in the US- the store where my father worked for over 20 years at. My husband suffered with a terrible bout of diverticulitis and now we sit in this house waiting for a cold snap to come and force us into eating popcorn and hot cocoa for a snack. (I had to mix in the good and the bad, eh?)

So physically, I am fine. I feel great, but I have gained more weight while partaking of the array of fast food restaurants while on the road for the last few months. My pants are snug but I just haven't gotten off of my fanny to do something about it. When wake up in the morning, the race begins! Four of my children are at home and I am currently homeschooling the older/nonworking two until January. (Long story)

So, I do still exist in blogland, I just haven't sat down long enough to write about my existence.
I sometimes feel like I am failing in the homeschooling department because of my lack of follow-up. My husband encourages me, but I seem to be having an adult case of ADHD.

How about you? Have you started 5 things at the same time only to not finish any one of them?
How do you get things done-not just done, but completely finished?

Help!!!!!

The Korma of Death...

Since living overseas, we acquired a taste for unusual foods. That is, unusual for American people foods. We love Oriental food, French food, Polish food, German food and have a big love of Indian foods. So, when we went to our favorite scratch and dent store and they happened to have some great mixes for Indian foods that we like, we jumped at the boxes and bought a few.

It was late, Friday night and my oldest and I had been at a church function till late and didn't have a chance to eat a meal. We naturally assumed the best from the hubby and two older children, that they would get some food for us, but alas, they did not. I figured that we had several choices of leftovers so that we wouldn't starve, so I wasn't really worried. I toodled off to my bathroom and went to business doing a deep condition on my poor, tired, frazzled hair. A short while later, I came out of my room with a plastic bag on my head and to my nostrils awakening to a fond smell of something exotic, something distinctly delicious in the air.
 Oooooh, I wasn't a bit hungry and yet the smell convinced me to try some. I went to my laptop to send off an email and wait out my 20 minutes of deep conditioning.  The oldest slapped a small bowl of beef Korma Curry in front of me and whisked away to find a seat and try some also. I inhaled the savoury aroma of spices and took a forkful into my mouth then began to chew. I was waiting for all of the fond memories of our favorite restaurant to come back to me when I felt the beginning tinge of heat and tingle on my tongue. The feelings became more intense and before I knew it, my eyes were popping out, my tongue was hanging from my mouth and I was begging for some yogurt to extinguish the flames that had overtaken my senses. Simultaneously, my oldest began pulling ice cream out of the freezer as I was slinging yogurt across my mouth in a hasty attempt to get it inside quickly and spread it over the burning areas. She was doing the same but still eating forkfuls of the offending food at the same time! 
SADIST, she is, but I AM NOT!
 Thinking ahead, I wanted to be able to go to bed without the flames making their way to my chest and clutching my heart in an ashy grip of death.
 "This is NOT the Korma I remembered!" I shouted. "I didn't feel like I was dying after I ate it the last time!
Needless to say, I am headed to the fridge to retrieve a Guinness so that I may possibly sleep tonight. If it gets any worse, I'll guess I'll pour it down my nose.........

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A quote from my son, "DANG, ya'll said it was hot, not magma!"

My Birthday Boy!

I am happy to announce the age turnover of my only son! Each birthday for him has been a challenge since he is a summer baby. His friends are scattered around the earth and something drastic always happens around his birthday. But he never complains..........

Dear Young Man,
You have been such a blessing to our family. As you grow into a responsible youth, I want to thank God for your presence. Your gracious spirit, kind heart and cheerful demeanor have been an anchor to your sisters. You have the smile of a saint and the heart of an angel. You don't complain when you need anything, you just merely put a gentle "word in my ear". There is no nagging from you. I have to drag you out to buy things that you need and you are so thankful when you receive things. Your sisters love your very presence and you are always willing to play with them (even when it comes to being their servant!). You are the family tech guy! If you can't fix it, we are all out of joint! You always know how to have fun. You are the only person in this house who can keep up with my barrage of wisecracks and badly timed jokes.
 You know that you are here for a purpose and that God himself sent word of your coming to your father. We don't know what His plans are for you, but we ask that you always listen to Him because you will never go wrong doing the will of God.
 We love you WynMan!

A New Version of Loaves and Fishes aka "Beets and Sausages"

If you know my family at all, you know that my children eat just about anything. They are a blessing in the picky eating department since they really aren't picky. I have one who dosen't like "fishy fish"(but loves salmon croquettes), another who dosen't like raw carrots,(but love them cooked) , one who dosen't like mashed or baked potatoes (but loves french fries or hash browns) and that's all. Oh, and none of them like cheap American chocolate, highly processed foods or microwaved anything!

 Now with that list, you can imagine that our diet consists of a lot of homemade food. So, for a dinner surprise tonight, we had a thrown together meal of Polish Kielbasa, Thai rice, garlic butter sauteed-california blend vegetables, sauerkraut and pickled beets. Hmmm, sounds like a refrigerator clean out meal to me.

Whilst I sauteed the sausages, the girls each plated a side dish. I heard the rants and raves of one daughter saying how much she loved beets and that they were "Natures Candy"! The two youngest ones hadn't really had them before so they were invited to have a preview bite. The youngest slowly chewed hers and as she swallowed her last bite, you could hear the sounds of delight as she asked for another bite, Then another bite and also ANOTHER! She was sent to help set the table in an effort to save some beets for the rest of us.

We finally sat down for dinner and dished out the meal. The youngest quickly devoured her sausage  and beets, promptly asking for more. We obliged, saying how much she was eating lately and if this was a growth spurt. Everyone had another round of dinner including another serving of the beloved beets. Us older folks knew we shouldn't push the limits of food intake, so we surveyed the leftovers in hopes that there would be some to pack in daddy's lunch for the next day. There wasn't much left but a half dozen coin sized slices of sausages and after fishing through the beet juice, only one slice of beet left.
As you can imagine, the little one asked for it and another round of sausages to accompany it down. She should have been full and stuffed by then, but we let her have 3 sausages and the last beet. She gulped that down at about the same time when the nearly teen asked for a couple of sausages to help "clear the table". Whatever girl! Here, we shall make Daddy something else for lunch. Effectively with that, everything was gone and there were no leftovers, but the little one persisted. She had to have some more (could this have been a competition?). We explained that it was all gone and she just had to look forward to thee next meal with beets. She kindly grasped the beet dish and used her fork to sift through the red murky liquid..... She stirred for a few moments and intently looking into the dish, started to stab and drag something to the side of the bowl.. What could it be? Three of us already checked fro stragglers and there were none, but she dragged two more beets up the side and with help, flopped them onto her plate. She was so happy! She stuck her fork back into the sausage dish and fished out two more sausages also! What was this? There was nothing left in those dishes but the child managed to get exactly what she wanted. It was nothing short of a miracle for which she was truly thankful for. After that, she put her plate away and ran off to prepare for our after dinner walk.

Have you had things like this happen to you??? Even the little things count.......

Night of the Neckbones!

It was an untypical night. We were feeling a little need to be in touch with our southern roots.  My oldest was inspired by a smothered pork chop recipe and really wanted something different for dinner. There were various meat products in the freezer that needed to be eaten since the freezer burn clock was ticking........
Voila! Neckbones!
 For some strange reason, there seemed to be several packages of them in the back of the freezer and I only used the smoked ones when making cabbage or greens, so how did we end up with so many packages anyway? Errrrr, whatever. Let's do something with them! Smothered porkchops, neckbones, smorkchops, smeckbones, smothered neckbones! (Did you see the evolution in that?) So somewhere, someone had made them and it was up to Google to help us find a recipe.
We were directed to Iheartcooking.com where the grainy video appeared to make the upcoming dish look delicious! (I also viewed the Ghetto Cooking Show version of this dish and was highly distracted by the strange blouse/bra strap and lecture about Whitney Houston's unfortunate death.)
Needless to say, my oldest had her heart set on this dish and it looked like we needed another package to make sure the teenagers had enough to make their meal. A run to Wal-Mart- here we go....
Now wash the bones, season them and put them in the oven. Make gravy, pour over bones and bake some more. Sounded easy and they were looking great!.
Side dishes included rice, roasted brussel sprouts and a cucumber salad.
Only the oldest, 5yr old and I knew what we were serving up for dinner, so when the others sat down at the table to eat, they had a big surprise.  A lovely dish full of browned bones and gravy! My son had an uplifting eyebrow moment and plowed forth, piling some on his plate and speculating how to best partake of the road ahead.
The two youngest had to have the meat scraped and pulled of of their bones so as not to provoke choking. (We actually like them, you know!)
The 11 yr old had the biggest smile since this was a hands-on meal and she is all about getting her hands messy.
Mr. didn't say much for a few minutes because he was surveying what to do next. He placed some on his plate and dug in too. After about 4 minutes, there were questions of " Where is the meat on this?, I got a bone!, and "When is the dinner coming???" There was lots of laughter and passing around of napkins and choking on over salted brussel sprouts. Baby Dear wanted more meat and with a shuffling of hands and rattling of bones, someone produced a tablespoon of meat to top her rice.

 Where's the meat???

                                                       
Mr. broke the silence with, "Bacon brings vegetarians back to meat, neckbones drive people away from it!". The son says, "Is this what happens when Dracula is the butcher?"
By the time we finished eating them, we figured we had burned more calories than we ate! Too much work for so little meat. "If we wanted to trick folks into having a near vegetarian meal then you should have said something!"
We had a good laugh and had to eat something else to make up for the deficit!

"The Tower of Bones"as interpreted by Wyn

Not just abandonment- a touch of neglect......

This was originally written in February.........

I should be and am ashamed of myself for not blogging. I gave my time and moments of my of life to letting people have a piece of my mind on this blog and apparently I have had no time to share my thoughts with anyone.
I guess I couldn't come to grips that moving back to the states would somehow mess up my rhythm of checking my email, facebook and blogging between the hours of the first shift of children going to school and the second shift of children waking up.
 I had a great and cushy life before Mr's retirement and now it seems as if the world is spinning on overdrive for me. I have so many things going on besides looking for a house and working at a lovely little Montessori school. I didn't plan on working until we settled in a home but an offer came up that I couldn't refuse. I had expected to be done with my Montessori certification, but between family illnesses and deaths, I couldn't focus and get anything done.
I have gained a significant amount of weight and seem to find food comforting, so there is a vicious cycle to that saga. Never mind that!
God has plans for us and somehow things work out to his glory even though we stand here with our mouths wide open and looking as if we were knocked off of our feet by a sudden gust of freezing wind.
Things will fall together eventually..... Patience!

Ciao,
Misty

Been locked out lately......

Dearest folks,
 I have been trying my best to get back in the blogging seat and it has not been easy. Nope, not one bit easy one you have figured out why your blog was deleted from the blogger account and still it is online and you can't break in so you can fix the problem!
Do I hear a resounding "Technology stinks sometimes!" So, since May (off and on), I have been periodically trying to fix this problem and write again to my hearts content, but "NO" says technology! And off to some other project I go.
And now, here we are again-together!
Celebrate with me!

Milk and cookies for all!

Ciao,
Misty

The Misspelling of Amerika (And How did Santa get a stake in his mouth?)

Good Morning Chilrens!
Todays' topic is "How English Has Gone Downhill Since Texting and Twitting Took Over!" or also known as, " The Misspelling of Amerika (And How did Santa get a stake in his mouth?)"

If you feel how I do, then the current status of American English makes you grow hair out of your ears! It all began a few years ago .......... I noticed that many words on billboards and posters began to pop up with mysterious punctuation misspellings; mainly apostrophe marks in silly places. No, wait, it actually started somewhere back in the 1950's when folks were making signs for doughnut shops and ran out of space so they spelled "Donuts" instead. (Do you see where I am going with this already?)
So back to the signs of today with their misplaced apostrophes',(do you see that one back there? That's what I am talking about!) Words like kids', Wedding's, birthday's, you know, bad punctuation like that. I am a little OCD when it comes to things, but it tears me up when I receive a text like this, "I'm tryna c wat time yall goin 2 cum ovr?"
Do you see that?? That is the type of English that makes teachers jump off ledges!!! What is going on in the education system today that stifles the encouragement of correct English? Is this just me or what? Tell me I am not just paranoid?
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So the reason I came up with this post is that while picking up my niece from school, I passed a couple of signs that had me gasp at the inability to proofread. One sign was on a Dairy Queen billboard and it said, "Stake Basket Sale $4.99. Now we happened to be talking about Santa when we passed this sign and seeing that it pertained to food, someone in the car shouted out, "Here Santa, have a stake in your mouth!". Oh, the laughter that ensued after that!
I wasn't going to turn around a take a picture right then- I would do it when I passed by in 2 days, but someone must have noticed the misspelling and fixed it by the next drive-by.

Now the second sign is a true insult to Hispanic culture. I can't believe that it has remained unfixed for at least 4 months! This one you really had to see to believe. How can you misspell tamales???

I know that you have to cut back on the quantity of words you use when texting and twittering, but does the quality have to diminish also? With these unlimited calling/texting plans, can't you just send 2 or three texts??

So, there is my gripe of this week.
What do you think about the current state of spelling? In my opinion, it sux!

It's been two months already?

I really should be ashamed of myself for thinking that I could keep up with all of the things going on in my life and try to blog about it. So many things to juggle and so little time in which to do them.

You would think that since I have no real "home" to live in and maintain, that I would have more time on my hands to do the fun things that I like doing, say like, sewing, crafting and blogging. But in reality, I have less time. Our days are spent driving around looking for houses and apartments, dropping off children to school, picking up irresponsible adult-like teenagers from school, Dr appointments, and searching for food. Yep, searching for things to eat.
You see, the little hotel room in which we have been inhabitating for the last 3+ months has no oven and only 2 tiny burners in which I cannot put a large skillet and a good sized 2 qt. pot on it and cook at the same time. There are some heavy eating teens in our family entourage and they have to be fed a couple of times daily (at least), so a meal with us is not just a salad, buddy! I used to be a-cooking and a-baking more often so we would normally have a good amount of leftovers and an ample supply of things to cook in the pantry. Our current pantry can only hold about 3 half full grocery bags of food before the doors bulge out.
Hmmmmmm, I lost my train of thought........
Oh, add to that the lack of an oven or bbq grill and you can see that half of the meals we would normally cook can't exist in our repertoire anymore!
Now with all of that coupled with a nearly self educating preschooler, one lazy home school 15yr old, an almost college student, a partial seeing, new-to-Montessori-school student whom I have to transport to and fro, house hunting, lonely older relatives, high maintenance adults, needy relatives, OCD family members, long distance family members, loved ones from overseas, an upcoming wedding and a toddler with destructive tendencies, then you can see that I have little time for myself.

Most likely you have called me and I was driving, so my handy personal assistant took a message and I was supposed to call you back, but didn't. I have to say that it might take me 3 days to 6 weeks to get back to you depending on the level of busyness that I am drowning it at the time. My handy assistant will remind me multiple times until I actually contact you back. I am so sorry!

Each week I think of all the things I could write about but when my body touches the bed, there is a mental eraser that hits me and BAM!, I forget what I was thinking about.
So feel free to remind me, call me, nag me and/or email me till you get the results you meant to acheive!

Anywho, we are alive and have been busy lately. Eye surgery for the preteen and hernia repair for Mr, all within 8 days of each other.
 I think at this rate and level of stress, I might need a wig for Christmas!

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Next Blog: The Misspelling of Amerika (And How did Santa get a stake in his mouth?)

These boots are made for walking...........

Dearest Family and Friends,
 It has been a while since I've blogged (Is is obvious?) and I have to apologize for not keeping you updated, but I was on a bit of a pointless protest and it looks as if I still didn't make my voice heard.
Have you ever tried yelling while standing in a crowd? No one hears you unless you are screaming, "Fire". Then as if the clouds opened and lightning struck the group, everyone starts running, err, stampeding for the door.
Well, the point of this is that I was yelling "Fire" months ago and was hushed up by the ones I thought who would listen. Hurt feelings and wasted time have been a part of my life since the summer began and now we are here in Texas, waiting and surviving. Looking for where we are led to next.
The good old Air Force had made our last months in England pretty miserable. One, by not paying us for several months, not doing paperwork correctly, and mostly by giving us an abrupt ending to a glorious time of living in the UK. So we packed up our boots(lives) and left. We loved our friends, church and schools there and having to leave suddenly just tore straight into our hearts.
There is a God and he is hearing my prayers, wiping my tears and helping me stand, but I'll tell you that there are rays of sunshine out there, even in the shadows.
 Just look to the sky.

It's My Party and I'll Cry and Fry if I want to!

Today was an unusual day in our house. Yes, it was Wednesday- the day that I don't have to go out if I don't want to. It was also the day after Mr's birthday.
 The major significance of today was that the baby of our house turned two.
Now if you know me, you know that I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! No doubt about it, if there is a party to be had then it should be in the form of a birthday party because you always (maybe not 100% of the time- maybe 75?), have fun.
I have certain traditions that I do for my children's birthdays and one of them is being there when they wake up and being the first person to tell them "Happy Birthday". Another is that they always have some kind of party on their actual birthday- not a day before or after but on the real date of birth. They can pick out what they want to eat that day and sleep late and several other perks which go with the yearly celebration.

Now here is what happened to Baby Dear on her special day today.
10:21am -Awaken from a long nights nap 3 hours after I normally wake up because I know that mom has to     be somewhere this morning and has allowed me to sleep in cuz it's my birthday.

10:38am -Fall to pieces because mom wants me to wear my spring school uniform to take school photos in. I finally get her to let me wear all purple because I am her queen and she hasn't realized it yet! Our appointment was originally set for 9:45 but I slept late because I am a dictator.

10:50am -Spit out my toothpaste on the floor and fall out because I don't want my teeth brushed today or any other day! Didn't I tell you this yesterday or do I have to repeat myself tomorrow?

11:10am- Sit down to an omelette made with bacon, my second favorite breakfast meat. I wanted sausage but apparently you didn't get my memo, slave!!! I ate it all and also another plate of it then two small bowls of blueberries before mommy stopped feeding me and asked if I wanted pizza or sushi for lunch. I said "shushi" because who wants lousy pizza when it's your birthday?
Mommy made sure there were helium balloons when I went the the dining room and I was so excited that I kept hitting my sister with them and made her cry. What a sissy!

11:45am- Those people of mine- they rushed me out of the house to go and see the photographer who tried to make me smile with some fluffy stuffed animal. I looked at her like she was crazy because she tried that bribery on me last year and it worked back then. I am knowledgeable in the ways of bribery, you slave!

12:38pm-I parade down the main street of the Village holding my birthday balloon and stick my nose up as the people say to me "Happy Birthday". I love all of the attention and keep ignoring them because I am a dictator and the people love me because I am.

12: 40pm- I bust into the front door of my "shushi" joint and wave my hands at everyone there. They adore me and give me candy when I come in. They treat me right and feed me what I want. What more could I ask for? (That's not a smart question- I could always ask for something outrageous!

1:10pm- Arrive home to have a picnic with my sushi and get jilted by those slaves again. We eat at the dinner table and I want more because it is my birthday. Never mind that I had 5 pieces already and I am full. So, I proceed to leave the 3rd helping on the plate because I can. I go outside to play with my sister who is skinny because she should eat my leftovers and she dosen't.

1:38pm- Play around the back door outside and run to the door to tell mom that my fingers hurt. I am ignored and not pampered like I should be so I go back to what I was doing. I yell to mom again and then April checks me out noticing the plug covers are open. Somehow that plug has a bit of a zap to it and it was in my way so I touched it and got the shock of zappo. I nearly fried myself they said!

2:15pm- bathed myself in sand and cried because mommy would  not let me eat it. She said that I don't need an internal cleansing and wiping sand off of my bottom is a feat left to surfers. She suggested that we go and visit my adopted Grandma Elizabeth because she also needs to celebrate my birthday too since I am the most loved dictator in the world.

2:30pm- go and visit Grandma and play with the African drums in her shop. I love the soapstone animals and the carved wooden giraffes so much that I would like to eat these too. Mom says "No" and I cause an avalanche of wooden figurines to fall over.(That's what she gets! I caused that because of you, peasant!) Grandma gives me a lovely dress and I want to put it on right there in the shop. Nudity is no problem for me- I am beautiful and you can be jealous of my gorgeous physique!

3:40pm-Ride home with my chauffeur and be left there with the other people of the house while mommy goes to pick up daddy from work. I guess I can let her go and do that!

4:20pm- Get pushed on my bottom causing me to shift into a handstand, bounce off the couch, handstand again and land on the floor in a state of near psychosis. (Can we fire these other "caregivers"??)

6:15pm- The party finally begins and I was hungry for dinner an hour ago so I resort to biting the hotdog package to inform my captors/servants that they are late serving me my dinner. We sit down to eat and I inhale 2 hotdogs, a half cucumber and a handful of tomatoes while everyone talks about how much I have grown. (Frankly, I think that they have regressed since they can't seem to understand my perfect English speaking!)
We get to the best part- the ice cream cake! I have to wear some of this because cream is a wonderful moisturizer for my precious skin. (Never mind that it can't be absorbed through my clothes, but that is what laundry slaves are for, eh??)

7:30pm- My day is done and I announce my departure to my slaves by having a fit and rolling around the floor. I am upset and need my bath immediately because I have been outside in nature and smell, well....... earthy. I ignore the guests saying "Goodbye" and make it to my warm tub, mini Moroccan massage, and lotioning session. I finally pass out in my sisters queen sized bed because frankly, my ego needs room to sleep. My servant reads me stories until I drift away.  I am two now and the world is my oyster, er-no, sausage because I can't chew those oyster things very well yet!

*This article is interpreted by my people because I have them to work for me and I own them all.

The "Lazy" Games

"Never do for a child what he/she can do for themselves." Maria Montessori

Good morning!
It's been a while since I have blogged and believe me, I did miss it a lot but I had so much to do and I am still not finished with the task at hand but I have to share this with you.
I have begun a twist in this chapter of my life. I have begun to delazy and undependetize my children. Yes, those are two new words in the dictionary of life that I have just invented to explain my problem.
-You see, my children have alarm clocks and don't use them.
-Their bathrooms are less than 10 feet from the laundry room- and their dirty clothes are on the floor.
-They disrobe and sometimes put their clothes in the laundry basket with socks and underwear still in their pants, unseparated, and looking like they are invisibly still wearing their clothes, thereby causing me to have to peel them apart and put them in their separate hampers.
-They walk away form the dining room table and leave their dishes.
-They leave a mess in the bathroom-no explanation needed.

So that is my list for today, or at least everything I can think of at this moment that makes me crazy.
Now I was pretty sure that we had established the remedies to all of these problems before but as time has moved on and our family size increased, putting a strain on my already strained schedule and house full of clutter, these children have taken advantage of my lack of persistence and made my life difficult.
My husband occasionally chimes in and says, "You know they need to do that themselves." Well his hands off approach to parenting has made my work harder, so I thought I would take my own measures. (Oh, he was right, you know)
The latest craze in the world is "The Hunger Games" so since I have never read it nor seen it nor know anything about it, I thought I would use it's title to my advantage.

This morning I began step 1- make them get up on their own. (or at least in enough time to catch the bus because I AM NOT driving out to that girls school again this week!) Usually I go in and sweetly announce what time it is and that they need to get up and moving then I go downstairs and start on breakfast, then I go back upstairs and tell them that they are running late, then I go back downstairs and work on breakfast again, then a while later I go back upstairs and announce that they are LATE!
I realized how foolish this was months ago and how dependent that they have become on me to do this. The alarm clock goes off (when they actually set it), they roll over, cut it off and go back to sleep until I come and wake them up a few minutes later, again and again.


So do you see my problem? This kind of mess coupled with extremely late nights of coursework and still getting up early at 6am-ish and you can tell why I am tired, cranky and ignit. Now that I see the error of my ways, and I don't have time for anything other than my education(almost done!) and family, my time is like liquid gold raining down the drain. I want to sew, I want to travel, I want to go to bed before midnight. I want to be me again!

This week we started with getting up on time.
Next week we work the laundry kinks out. They are going to start doing their own!
Pray for me, this could get ugly!

Now the first steps have been taken and let this journey begin!!!!!

Is the "Farce" With You?

I know that the title of this is a play on words, but I really mean to pose this as a question.
Is the Farce with you?
Does everything you do have a tinge of comedic drama to it?
Can your life be put on screen as a sitcom?
Do your cheeks hurt from laughing most of the time?
Have you pushed a van that broke down in a drive through and received a callous on your hand lately? (Sorry, I just threw that one in there because it happened to me this week.)
Do you have that "Special Someone" in your life who makes you want to lose your sanity, and if your sanity was a solid object, say, a baseball bat, use it as a weapon against them?

If you can say "Yes", to more than 2 of those questions, then you have become one with the "Farce Side".
I have had people come up to me and ask- "Is what I read on your blog really true?
Frankly, I'd like to say "Yes, but truthfully, I'd have to say .............................. Drumroll please............ YES!
Now you know that I really do live the life of "I Was Lucy"!

I was angry at my brother for needing money this week and ran out of words to say so I called him a farce of adulthood. Anyone can be angry and curse, but it takes creativity to call someone something uninsulting and get the point across.
I don't mean to be mean, but sometimes I lose my cool.
Is this you? Do you lose your cool and couth but retain your dignity? Or does your dignity become a handbag and you have to put it down sometimes or use it as a threatening dangerous object?
Personally I don't condone violence, but if you lose your mind then, well, you aren't in control of your faculties at that moment. Wrath or adrenaline takes over and well, they have no logic. That also happened to me last week. I was in the laundry room, kicking through the clean clothes when I had a revelation. "Why am I doing this? Isn't Child #2 supposed to have this in order? Why am I here and they are sitting on their petunia watching tv? That's it!! I am not doing laundry again for any child over the age of 10! So I threw their clothes in their respective clean clothes bins and shoved them in their doorways, yelling "I am not doing YOUR laundry again, and if you EVER leave this laundry room in the state that it is in again, YOUR clothes will be out on the lawn. DO YOU HEAR ME???
Needless to say, I had to go downstairs and tell them this to their faces because no one heard me when I said it the first time!!! I was hysterical and they thought I was hallucinating! I really don't know if I got the point across, but I just asked my oldest and she said that she heard me say something about the laundry and it made her laugh! AWWWWWW MANNNN!

So take it from me, stop, think and breathe or folks will be laughing at your angry moments!

Now that I know that the farce is with me, I should use it to my advantage. Can I get a show on tv or should I get a psychiatrist to visit me?
Should we all join our farces together and change the world for the better?

(This post is brought to you by delirium of sickness.Two weeks and it's still going on......)

The Beginning of Something Undescribable

We, no, I decided to really get off the fence and bring Montessori principles into our home full of little ones (okay, just a couple of little ones). I decided to start our first real day of integration with several St. Patrick’s Day projects for my 4yr old to do. I had planned for many days and only had to go to the garage to get the gold coins for counting and adding to the pot of gold. Well, that fateful morning came and I had a crazy whim- let’s got to Ikea! I had been wanting to go for months and had been looking for an opportunity to go. I was sure that the activities I had planned were only going to last for an hour so at the last minute the plans changed- we were going to Ikea!! Yea!

Now the logistics of going on a trip with 2 little ones is quite comical. We live in England, the island of ever-changing weather.You have to be prepared for everything at all times.

Here is how that happens…………..

First, you have to have the little one dressed for the weather AND for the car trip. Do NOT forget spare clothes or you will go back home immediately and curse the fact that you were unprepared.

Second, you will need snacks, lots of them in a variety of tastes and textures since drive-throughs with healthy food do not exist anywhere on the planet.

Thirdly, you have to have a full tank of petrol (gas), just in case the traffic jam from outer space pops up and you are diverted through 22 miles of English countryside in the opposite direction of where you are heading. (Yes, that has actually happened to me here- twice!)

Fourthly, since the entourage you travel with always has a tricky and sensitive bladder, you have to carry a porta-potty unless you want to hold someone’s tushy in the bushes because the nearest toilet is not close enough!

Lastly, time your excursion between the hours of nursery school ending and the last child arriving home from school because if you leave the certain two at home together, you will have to replenish all snack supplies and leftovers because they were still hungry after eating the snacks that you left for them.

Now, get all these packed items to the back door and prepare to walk out. Spot check little girls and wonder why is one drooling?

OH NO! SHE IS THROWING UP!!! I can’t believe this! We got this far!!!!!!!!

Ikea trip cancelled!

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I guess we will start again next week…………

What Happens When a Tooth Fairy Loses a Tooth?

Absolute chaos!
Last week, my tooth fairy was put out of commission for having to have a baby tooth pulled from TF's (Tooth Fairy) mouth. Now this TF has been on the job for several years and has been quite creative in the way they deliver and reply to those letters from the children. Once they wrote back on a cute letterhead explaining to the recipient that they needed to stop sucking their thumb or else they would never see TF again. The sucking of teeth made their teeth protrude so offensively that there was no way to get a good price on those bent teeth, therefore the child would only get half price on teeth transactions!

I personally thought that this was really creative on the part of the TF.
Who else comes up with such a fancy story that could almost sound true to unsuspecting readers?
So the TF was out of commission and I was left to pick up the pieces. There were a lot of pieces since the tooth had been broken when the Dr pulled it out! (You catch that pun?) The real TF tries to make the exchange on the night of the incident. Remember, sooner is better than forgotten!
Day 1- I forgot. TF reminded me that they had been forgotten.
Day 2- I forgot. Again!
Day 3- No money for the exchange.
Day 4- I receive a nasty note about the past due payment.
Day 5- Tf asks if they have to do the job for themself, but they can't because they do have any money!
Day 6- The tooth is missing. Stolen by unsuspecting preschoolers and lost in the room dubbed, "The Black Hole".
Day 7- Found and exchanged for $2.00. TF scolded me for making them look bad and they wouldn't leave the job to me again if they ever had to! They also said that I was CHEAP!
Well, my feelings could have been hurt but nope! I completed the job and gave it back to the TF to continue the reign over dental storage and exchanges!
That was 6 months ago!
Guess what?
TF had another baby tooth pulled last week!
Here we go again because I forgot to be the substitute.
Well, that explains those nasty looks I've been getting at the dinner table!

(Now off to find some money..........)

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New Year, New Attitude

Wow!
This year has flown by already and I am amazed at the things which have happened (or not!). The children have all grown so much since January 1st and I seem to be stuck in a strange holding pattern with my teaching certification, weight loss, and simplifying of my home. Yes, I am trying to get it all done, but strangely I have been overtaken by a new obsession,(OCD is rearing it's ugly head). The obsession of clean and uncluttered flat surfaces! I know, this probably dosen't mean much to you, Dear Reader of the already uncluttered, clean house and flat surface type, but this is SIGNIFICANT to me!
I'm used to a fairly decently messy house where toys, stuffed animals, newspaper, and bodies are on the floor. The occasional couch pillow, blanket,another body, car keys, shopping cart and plastic container of cotton balls didn't bother me either, but now it distracts me and I HAVE to do something about it. There is NO tunnel vision to me, (unlike my other family members who seem to ignore and step over things, while stopping briefly to place an empty soda can on the counter when the recycle bin is only 6 feet away, my SON!) and I can't overlook it anymore. Right now, I am sitting at the dining room table and to my left, there is an empty small pizza container, basket of napkins(it belongs here), three books and a clipboard(my textbooks),ziplock bag of 2 day old cupcakes, little peoples smock, glass of water & cup of tea (both are mine), some V-day artwork, some stickers and my sons hat. This is so-ooo distracting to me and if I look up to the kitchen counter then I feel the tension mounting as I see more little things that could possibly push me to the brink of insanity!
I honestly don't know what or why this happened all of a sudden, but wait! I think I do know! As I have been doing my Montessori coursework, I have had this constant problem of losing whatever book that I am studying from. This has happened more times that I can count and it has annoyed Mr. so much that he requested that I buy a Kindle version so that I can't lose it and can read it on my pc or Kindle (yes, I succumbed to Kindle and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!), and he can stop having to hunt for it with me. (Sadly, neither of the books are electronic- boo hoo.) Now back to where I was....... Ummm. Okay. I lost my train of thought since looking at the counter- good grief! See, now you understand what I am saying? All this stuff is wearing me down and I can't seem to get rid of enough of it!
Oh, now I know where I was. I was talking about my teaching certification. So I am at the part of how environment effect learning and I am living proof of it and so is my family! Wowwee- we are all suffering from OJCS (Overstuffed Junk Clutter Syndrome). Distraction, stress, constipation (I just threw that one in there to see if you were actually paying attention-HA!), all of those symptoms that point to us as overwhatevered! So about 2 weeks ago I started 40 Bags in 40 Days again.http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2011/03/one-week-from-now-40-bags-40-days.html I really enjoyed it and got rid of a lot of stuff. This time I am hell bent (is that a curse word?), on getting it done by March 5th. We have friends coming to stay with us for a week and I don't want to open a closet and be attacked by 40 rolls of toilet paper falling out of it! (And by the way, the toilet paper WAS on sale!) Besides the benefit of looking clean and tidy, my home should be peaceful to me and my family also.

Where did it all go wrong? By all means, I can't exactly pinpoint any one thing, but can point out at least 10.
-Baby dear came via c-section which spiraled me into a depressive like state of being since I wasn't capable of delivering her myself.
-I had 2 major thyroid surgeries in 15 days, leaving me unable to care for the 6 month old as well as lift anything heavy for nearly 2 months.
-Oldest child had a failed surgery to plug a hole in her heart.
-Husband had the same surgery- it worked and they fixed it.
-Oldest child graduated from high school. (I am now feeling old!)
-Financial problems with my family back in the states.
-My babies both started nursery school.
-Only son started high school and began his career as a slacker.
-I gained an enormous amount of weight since my thyroid meds have been unstable.
-My father's dementia worsened in a matter of weeks. He passed away right before Christmas.
-We went back to the states and realized how much we have become European.

There were lots of little things interspersed in there, but those on the list were the major issues. So I can say that I have had some pretty good excuses, don't you?
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So now that I have laid that on you- the blog that I wrote on Feb 1st, and currently it is March 4th, would you like to know how far I got on the 40 bag challenge?
33 bags of all shapes and sizes have left my home!! Books, clothes, recyclables, you name it- it is gone!
Is my house a little cleaner? Why yes it is and I am not done yet.
I have one more day to get there and by golly, I will!

Conversations in the hallway.

Here is a smidgeon of what you hear in our hallways.
"She's cute. In a psychotic way."
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"Why are you telling me to stop? I haven't even put my hands around your neck yet!"
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"If they had chocolate flavored medicine, there would be an awfully large amount of overdoses."
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My four yr old LOVES to help me cook. This conversation happened while I was detering her from helping me make breakfast one morning.
(Me in my thickest Russian accent.)"Dear Sweetheart, bacon pops and sizzles and burns your skin!"
(Now scream and wave your arms wildly in front of you while backing up) "ARRGGHHHHHhhhhhhhh!"
(Now whisper enthusiastically.)"So keep your distance!"
She backed away so quickly, she tripped over her chair!
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My son was awarded an after school detention and my husband lectured him about how this jail term was ruining his good name since he NEVER had to go to detention. So, the two teenagers got into a conversation about the oldest one having after school detention and how could it ruin the family name. They came to me in the kitchen and the conversation goes as follows;
April-"Mom! Dad is telling Wyndon that he is ruining the family name by becoming a Jailbird! What is he taking about- that's crazy!
Wyndon- "Yea! C'mon, I wasn't even skipping. It wasn't on purpose! I was only late FOUR times in this whole school year! That's not so bad is it?"
April- "I don't think so. I had to go to detention TWICE in my whole high school career! Mom, did you ever have to go to detention?"
Me, as I was thinking how much I didn't want to answer this question.- "Well, YEAH! I went to detention and I ROCKED THAT PLACE!!!"
Mr.laughed and walked out of the room.
Case closed...........
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The little girls were chasing each other in the dining room and Chloe ran through, quickly and gracefully dropping to her knees and ducking under the table to avert a headcracking disaster. Joy, who was chasing her hasn't achieved this level of ducking action yet. She tried to bend quickly to get under, but instead cracked her forehead on the side of the table, knocking herself into a level of consciousness unknown but all except trauma patients.All you could hear was a thud upon impact."UUgh" was what we heard. Then she stood there looking at the table, bewildered, thinking "How could you? What was that? I'm not doing this again!" She turned around and slowly walked away from the scene of the accident........
April and I, on the other hand sat there waiting for the right time to laugh.......
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My son came home from school for lunch on one of the days he had ridden his bike. He said he had had an accident. Obviously he was a bit shaken up since he had to repeat it TWICE to get my attention. He said he was riding and his bike hit something, causing him to fly off and land face down with his hands averting the face altering plastic surgery disaster that happened to MR. April asked him if anyone saw it and he said, "Yes, they all asked me if I was okay." So he walked the bike home in search of compassion and love. He picked a terrible time as we were heading out the door to deliver fresh, hot Shanghai Noodles to Elise's class for a Chinese New Year's party. I quickly looked him up and down, assessing that it was just a small spill and that he was an overly dramatic person. I told him that we were leaving and I was sorry that he was hurt. "Heat up some Shanghai noodles in the microwave, eat that and you will be okay. Just don't be late going back to school."
As uncompassionate as that was, that was all I could do at the moment. As I headed out the door, I went to slip on my shoes and saw a horrible sight- one of his shoes was ripped open! I looked out the door and saw his bike- It was wrecked up too. I turned and REALLY looked at him and saw that he was TRULY jacked up! He was really wrecked too! Needless to say, I felt bad for him.
But I am telling you- he is a "High School Drama Queen!"
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There are only two things that can breathe fire. One of them is a dragon and the other is Gordon Ramsay.
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A Birthday to Remember........

My dear 9yr old, soon to be 10 yr old has a birthday right before Christmas. Only 3 days mind you, but around Christmas? What a busy time of the year to call your own. You have to squeeze your "special me time" between the most gluttonous days of the year and the celebration of the birth of Christ! How can a little girls birthday compete with that? The holidays are always stressful and I hate trying to get things in the mail in Dec-Jan. It is nearly impossible to get it on time if you haven't ordered it in October! And, if you know me I like to plan things a little bit near the almost possible last minute, got that? So we had the idea and the reason, but the clock was starting to tick. It was the beginning of the month and I was gearing up for a small birthday invasion, but alas, this wasn't meant to be. I was summoned home to see my father for what was to be the last time. It was a sobering journey that has it's place in another blog....
So we went to Texas and came home on Dec 20th, approximately 2 days before this poor child's birthday. Having just been mentally taxed, my first thought was to postpone the party till the weekend but it just didn't feel right to me. I have just about always had the children's birthday party on their actual "day of birth" and it has become a tradition to me to do so- no matter what day of the week. The outrageous variety of a Tuesday afternoon party versus the usual Saturday afternoon shindig just tickles my bones so being a bit off the beaten path I wanted to keep up the tradition. Apparently I am a traditionalist and fail to admonish that realization. (I have to insert this here-one of my favorites!!)


Now I call up her 5 friends to see if they can come to our house for an impromptu spa party and of course they all say "Yes!" Elise was a happy camper and we began the frantic preparations! The cake was an ice cream cake from the commissary-I just didn't have the stamina to bake one myself, but she loved it just as well. I picked up a few items while we were in the states and they covered most of what we needed so another mom added to the "beauty collection" with her equipment and knowledge and we were all set! Six young ladies were pampered and poshed for a few hours and dear Elise had the time of her life! I am so blessed that it all worked out for the best and you can see by the smile on her face that she was just a glowing with happiness!
Happy Birthday Elsie!!